Press Release: Extend the Eviction Ban

PRESS RELEASE from Homes for All – 02/06/2021 for immediate release

Housing Campaign condemns the government’s heartless decision to end the eviction ban, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of homelessness

The Government’s announcement to end the ban on evictions on May 31st 2021 is now on course to plunge hundreds of thousands of private renters into homelessness

The pandemic has shown the extent to which extreme inequality in the UK can be measured through the indicators of insecure, unaffordable and unsafe housing. Shelter and other leading organisations have revealed that the wellbeing of many families has already been compromised in order to pay their rent. 

It is essential that the government reverses its decision to end the eviction ban immediately if it is to avoid a massive crisis of homelessness over the coming months and over 100 organizations, campaigns, union representatives and leading spokespeople have signed a letter by the national housing campaign Homes for All calling for this. 

John, Lord Bird, founder of The Big Issue, said

“With the Eviction Ban ending, I fear what the coming months will bring. This is about making sure we don’t condemn hundreds of thousands of people to homelessness.

“It is key that the Government supports decent landlords by getting them back to profitability, whilst preventing mass evictions. 

 “Those who privately rent will have felt the brunt of Covid-inflicted job losses, falling incomes and rising debts in the past year. The government urgently needs a Covid Rent Debt Fund to clear these debts, get tenants back on their feet, and allow landlords to claim the income they’ve lost.

The Big Issue set up the Ride Out Recession Alliance in Spring 2020 to prevent mass homelessness caused by Covid-19 poverty and called for the Eviction Ban to be upheld. “

John McDonnell MP said:

“The government cannot just stand by and do nothing about the massive wave of evictions that we are now facing. Action is needed urgently to prevent this threatened dramatic rise in homelessness.”

Homes for All is a broad-based coalition campaigning for secure, safe and affordable housing for all and their letter to highlight this issue with nearly 150 signatures from leading union, campaign and political organisations is here:  letter here.